The article reviews the commencement speech given by John Sergeant to the Alumni Association of Nassau Hall. Though this is a review, the much of the article is large passages of the speech which the reviewer finds significant. Sergeant comments that not all students receive the same literary distinctions in college; he blames parents for poorly preparing students, lack of intelligence, disturbance of study and sickness. He claims that lack of preparatory education, though, is most significant. Parents push students beyond their abilities and schools do not properly prepare for college learning. Sergeant describes the advantages of college education and the losses suffered in not attending. He also describes the duty of the educated man to guard the “cause of education” and to judge improvement capably.